Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Friday that New York City and NYC Health + Hospitals will be launching the Test and Trace Corps.

The Test and Trace Corps is being formed to suppress the spread of COVID-19 as the city prepares to enter “low-level transmission.”

The Corps will focus on preventing infection even as social distancing measures are adjusted.

LIVE BLOG - Coronavirus updates from the tri-state area and beyond
TRACKER: New York, New Jersey, Connecticut coronavirus cases and deaths 

The executive director will be Dr. Ted Long, and Jackie Bray will be the deputy executive director of the Corps. The chief medical officer will be Dr. Andrew Wallach, Dr. Jay Varma will be brought on as senior advisor for public health and Dr. Demetre Daskalakis will be the deputy commissioner of disease control.

The Test and Trace Corps will implement New York City's fight to suppress COVID-19. The Corps is tasked with testing New Yorkers for infection, tracing all cases and contacts and supporting and caring for cases and their contacts.

By May, the unit will house and deploy 1,000 public health foot soldiers to investigate cases, trace contacts, monitor contacts and manage all case data and inquiries, with 2,500 by June.

Nearly 7,000 applications have already been received and are being evaluated for hiring, according to the mayor.

New York City will utilize the Johns Hopkins University COVID-19/Contract Tracing Training, sponsored by Bloomberg Philanthropies, for all applicants who are being considered for contact tracing jobs.

 New York City will also be partnering with Salesforce to deploy a fully integrated call center, customer relationship and case management system designed to support citywide test and trace efforts.

The Test and Trace Corps will deploy Salesforce on June 1.

Mayor de Blasio also added that the Corps will provide hotel rooms for any New Yorkers requiring isolation and monitoring.

By June, 1,200 hotel rooms with monitoring and supervision will be online.

Appropriate social service wrap-around service and clinical services will also be provided onsite.

The mayor also addressed the subway nightly shutdowns. He says on Thursday night, 269 people were engaged on the subways and 163 of them accepted services. He says 148 went to shelters and 15 went to the hospital.

The city will also increase social distancing in parks that have a mix of tight spaces and large crowds.

The city will limit capacity at Hudson River Park Piers 45 and 46 and will also increase the NYPD presence and closely monitor Domino Park.